Valentini To Step Down As Dean Of Columbia College

Upper West Side NY

24 September, 2021

10:31 AM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY ZACHARY SCHERMELE AND IRIE SENTNER SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 James Valentini will step down as dean of Columbia College and vice president of undergraduate education in June 2022, after a decade serving in one of the most senior student-facing administrative positions at Columbia, University President Lee Bollinger announced in an email Thursday. Valentini will stay on as a chemistry professor and continue to teach and research. Bollinger's email does not include information regarding the search for Valentini's replacement, or an explanation of why Valentini is stepping down. In a separate email, Valentini also did not give a reason for his departure, but called serving as dean "the greatest privilege of [his] professional life." "It was only through my role as dean that I came to fully appreciate how extraordinary the College is and how remarkable our students are," he wrote. "Students are not just the reason the College exists, you are also the animating force behind all that we do." During his decade-long tenure as dean, Valentini focused on providing innovative course offerings, expanding undergraduate access through robust financial aid, and improving the quality of the Core Curriculum. In 2015, he launched the Core to Commencement Campaign, a fundraising effort that is part of Columbia College's annual fundraising expectation and has raised nearly $670 million of its $750 million goal, an extension of the previous goal of $400 million by 2019. Valentini has also launched several initiatives aimed at enriching the student and faculty experience. An initiative called "My Columbia College Journey" encourages students to reflect on their skill-building and personal growth, while his leadership of the JED Foundation task force on student wellness and mental health helped catalyze the Live Well | Learn Well project. Valentini's Eric H. Holder Jr. Initiative for Civil and Political Rights connects the Core Curriculum to contemporary issues of civil and political rights. "Jim is a scientist who leads Columbia College with his heart as well as his intellect. Anyone who has worked with Jim for even a short time feels his devotion to the College and his abiding appreciation for its unique and proud history," Bollinger said. Valentini is outspoken about his identity as a first-generation college student: He earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh, his master's degree in chemistry from the University of Chicago, and his doctorate in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to arriving at Columbia, Valentini completed postdoctoral work at Harvard and served as a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. Valentini first arrived at Columbia over 30 years ago. Before becoming dean, he served as chair of the department of chemistry and director of its Undergraduate Studies Program. Valentini was instrumental in establishing Columbia College's Science Research Fellows program, which gives distinguished undergraduates access to a research stipend, mentorship, and enhanced financial aid. As dean of the college, Valentini has prioritized improving the quality of the Core Curriculum and shoring up fundraising for financial aid, but those priorities have at times butted up against the aspirations of Bollinger, who has instead dedicated a considerable amount of his tenure to the development of the Manhattanville campus and fundraising for larger research initiatives, both of which have boosted the University's prestige. But the pandemic, as well as a high-stakes exploration of possibly expanding the undergraduate student population, have created a series of rifts between Valentini and other senior administrators, including Bollinger. According to Bwog, in July 2020, Valentini expressed frustration at a notion that Bollinger and then-interim Provost Ira Katznelson seemed to relay to him and Amy Hungerford, the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, in an email appearing to suggest it would be easier to force in-person instruction during the pandemic on non-tenure-track faculty—despite having already surveyed those faculty about their preferences for the 2021-22 academic year. Katznelson, who has since been replaced by Mary Boyce as provost, denied that premise in a series of tense email exchanges with Valentini. Valentini criticized the way Hungerford had advised faculty to communicate their modality preferences. More than a year later, students have descended on campus in full force, causing an uptick in COVID-19 cases that has prompted a reversal in some undergraduate hall policies. The reopening has garnered intense criticism from some students, as the increase in enrollment during the pandemic shed light on the potential implications of an under-resourced undergraduate expansion. Due to COVID-19-related deferrals and leaves of absence, administrators expected as early as last year a roughly 8 to 10 percent increase in enrollment upon returning to campus, which prompted them to reach out to faculty about building more capacity into the system to accommodate more students. That conversation quickly morphed into a proposal to expand the undergraduate student body in an effort to generate greater tuition revenue, after the pandemic left Columbia with losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The expansion question launched a full-fledged investigation of the Columbia experience by faculty, which is being conducted by three working groups and a steering committee. Valentini chairs a working group looking into the potential effects of expansion on student life and the Core. A decision on expansion will likely come by the end of the 2021-22 academic year—the same time Valentini will formally step down from his role. Many faculty members, particularly in Columbia College and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, have criticized the expansion effort, arguing that they are already overworked and under-resourced. Adding more students without a commensurate expansion of faculty and resources is not possible and could degrade the value of an undergraduate education at Columbia, some have claimed. Supporters of expansion contend that if it is done with a proportionate increase in resources, it will broaden the scope of the University's impact and give more students access to a Columbia education who would not have had it otherwise. "That the College thrive long beyond the end of my deanship is my ultimate priority, and it is one shared by countless others who treasure Columbia College, including staff, alumni, and faculty," Valentini wrote in his email. Deputy News Editor Zach Schermele can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ZachSchermele. Deputy News Editor Irie Sentner can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @IrieSentner. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.